Sunday, 29 December 2013

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, my own was spent working, however I did have a nice boxing day meal with my family after my shift and had a couple of nice days lately with Mai save me being loaded with the cold. This year we chose not to give presents and cards as we have other avenues for our hard end and I know our family and friends understand.

Nothing special to post this time round just finished off an additional Prussian foot battery. I finished 1 in May and this is the 2nd in different positions. I had to make sure to keep the painting style the same as I planned to mix them together a bit.

The crew positions will no doubt be totally wrong as I again could not find a source that showed where the crew members stood when firing/loading. Also I picked up a good amount of the crew figures in penny pockets from different lots and deals over the years so they are not all 100% part of a specific crew set.

Darren, some of these figures will be yours buddy so it will no doubt be good to see them painted up ready for action.

I believe this will be the last Prussian foot battery I paint as I now have 3 (1xOG, 2xAB). I may add a set of 12lb guns to 1 of these and use their guns on a horse battery that is close to being finished?

Anyway it was a really nice feeling to get them finished off as the guns were a pain to paint.

An interesting little side project Craig and I are planning.

I'll post more pics when things start to happen!

News from the Philippines:Nothing really positive has happened in Tacloban city so life is still tough for everyone however as well as getting money over we also managed to get 30 kilos of dried foods, meds and chocolates to our family just before Christmas through a friend who was flying into Manila and very kindly gave us some baggage space! Mai's friend picked up the bag at the airport and took it to Tacloban. This meant the kids in the neighbourhood at least had some treats for Christmas. We have also been sending out letters to food companies and pharmacy suppliers hoping for donations of dried goods, high energy food, medicines (basically anything that will be useful) as we are sending a huge box by container to the family and neighbourhood in January. Thankfully we have already had some donations of shortbread, chocolate and have dried goods to collect from a Chinese cash and carry. I'll post an update when I have more info.

Also thanks Malc for sending up a very heavy box of figures for myself and brother, there was a lot of useful figures in the box Malc and anything we don't use we will pop on ebay and send the proceeds over to Philippines so thanks a million!!!

Tuesday, 17 December 2013

The weekend before the typhoon hit the Philippines I was fortunate to be invited down to Robert's garage for a game with Billy, Robert and Gary. The battle would be based on I believe the 1st day of Leipzig from the GdB scenario book. Unlike last weeks game this 1 was pure inspiration. I have to say I almost forgot about all the pics I took because of the following days unfolding events.

So this is how the table looked at the start of the game, the pics were pretty poor due to the darkness in Robert's garage (and my lack of photographic ability) but you should get the general idea of the game. Robert and I played the allies and Billy played the French on his own as Gary unfortunately couldn't make it.

For this week all of the troops were from Roberts collection. I had charge of the Prussians on the right flank as well as some Russians. In the bottom right would be our 1st objective. The Scenario is basically set around the allies assaulting various towns, villages and 1 farm with the French defending them to the last.

This is a shot of my initial advance on the small farm.

Robert had control of an Austrian army on our left and centre. I seriously would like to build on my own Austrians as they have to be 1 of the most eye catching armies on the table when seen in large numbers.

This will be the main Austrian command poking fun at the French from across the field with some captured treasures.

A brigade command with some Hungarians in their rather nice blue strides, this is 1 of my favourite uniforms of the Napoleonic period (but then again is there a Napoleonic uniform that doesn't look brilliant???).

Ian somewhere in this lot are the newly based French troops Robert acquired from you and very nice they look to.

And the wee man himself. Well this wasn't actually on the day Napoleon as Billy used this 1 as a regular command stand however the real deal will be making an appearance pretty soon.

Some chasseur a cheval, My only real success of the day was to give these guys a drubbing! My dice were poor, no very poor!

And the Polish lancers of the guard from the same brigade.

Some Saxon artillery standing in as Poles for the day I believe?

More of the enemy moving into position.

Robert's 1st move was to advance his main Austrians on the strong point above. I'll just point out that no matter how well we rolled Billy had blessed dice all day!!!

A quick tactical change, Russian cavalry being sent to bolster my weak flank.I would have needed a few T34's to be honest!!!

A close up of some of Robert's tasty AB French.

A view from the grand artillery duel that would last all day.

This was an Austrian faint on the left flank as the main assault headed for the centre area and my left flank.

Another view of the lovely Polish lancers, AB I believe?

French batteries now in position.

So I set out assaulting the little farmstead. The fusiliers in extended line were not my idea by the way! I am very unsure of using legere, fusiliers and voltigeurs in their light capacity. I'm trying to learn however it can be dangerous when playing with experienced players. These poor fusiliers were pretty soon ridden down and I believe they were the best troops I had on the field, lol!

French reinforcements held in reserve waiting for Napoleon I believe?

The great thing about playing with experienced players is watching how easily they manoeuvre their troops on the table, kind of like watching good snooker players?

Billy started out his dice rolls as he aimed to continue throughout the day rolling a double 6 on the 2nd initiative throw unleashing the Corsican ogre and his precious guard. Robert had told me before hand that the scenario was a very difficult 1 for the Allies to win and when Napoleon enters the battle it becomes pretty close to impossible. Napoleon having a wee rest above!

The guard flowing towards my side of the table. I'll post more pictures soon of the actual battle.

Sunday, 8 December 2013

Today I managed to make it down to the club for a wee game. I txt'd JP and young David late Thursday and between us we arranged an 1813-15 game. Long day at work yesterday so no scenario sorted out, I was just to knackered. So we set up an encounter battle in 1815 (Obviously not Historical).

What was good to see was that the full Prussian army side was my own and the French side was supplied by my nephew young David.

We had no idea how many would turn up and in the end there were 8! So we split the troops as best we could but I'll not tell you it was an enjoyable game. I've not played with the guys for a good while other than about a month ago but there was a lot of grey areas hit in the rules and a lot of arguing. I could see both sides in most but not a pleasant experience. a problem i had felt elwith our wee club in the past was there was never anything planned before and nobody seems to know who is coming for a game. This was the case on Saturday as I thought there was possibly 4 of us playing.

Anyway the objectives were 2 towns and there were apparently points for capturing each. The little battles we had were fun but because of the size of the table we ended up splitting the battles into 2 halves. I'm happy to say my newly painted landwehr cav held their own not routing from the table in their 1st battle.

Jamie and I combined our forces to take the town above and thankfully took it well.

Billy and JP were somehow without cavalry support? A bit of a mess of a game.

My Prussian kurassiers Controlled by Jon B on the other side of the table. I believe they did well against Stuart.

Our family minifigs getting a run out. Still have a soft spot for them amongst all the AB and OG.

Jamie took control of our light brigade. My uhlans and hussars used very well by J. The newly finished uhlan command base leading them well!

A wee snippet of young David's lights and Swiss.

All in all I have to say this was the least enjoyable game of naps I have ever played. 4 of the guys have played regularly together and it would appear that they hit the same grey areas and have the same arguments. 1 being the understanding of when ordering assaults/engage what exactly can you A/E. The GdB forum is there and to me the rules play well.

I'm not argumentative in regards to gaming, I will just blow. The guys I all respect as they put the time in where I can't but I don't think these points are huge. I don't know any other rules and to be honest I don't have the time to put in on learning others. All I can say is its the 1st game I have came away from and not had inspiration to paint! There is also a new chap who has 40 years of experience in naps and picks everything apart on how everything should be in the Napoleonic period. This can be interesting but also very time consuming.

Anyway its only toy soldiers and there are worse stuff happening in the world.

Tuesday, 3 December 2013

Carrying on with my late Prussian army and the Katzbach order of battle I have painted up a Silesian landwehr cavalry regiment. I can't recall the number at the moment but will add it in later. This is my 7th Prussian cavalry regiment, not a huge amount by a lot of peoples standards however I'm chuffed to see them finished!

The pics are a bit iffy colour wise but you get the overall effect.

As usual the shading hasn't shown up well on the horses and also as usual at the very last moment I bumped a bloody lance and paint came off. These lance holding troops are going to be a nightmare!!!

Although dark the blues come out well with a coat of varnish on them.

Maybe a bit to close on a 15mm figure but for once you can actually see the shading on my blues, flesh and grey.

I did the yellow with a GW foundation paint as a base and then highlighted with an old humbrol acrylic signal yellow with a wee bit of white mixed in.

I missed a trick on the officers saddle cover giving them just regular black sheepskins instead of white but no matter.

So that's them, more cannon fodder for my Prussian army. In my sights now should be a special Prussian cavalry regiment I have sitting around waiting for an undercoat but I'm hoping Craig gets his finished 1st to show it off as I need a change from cavalry. I have a lot of other troop types on the go that I can choose from so I'll have a rummage!

Monday, 2 December 2013

Still a stressful time for our family over in the Philippines however they are trying hard to get some bits of normality into their life again regarding work and school even though there are no real buildings or organisation left. Relief aid in the city is still close to none existent so I'll not go into depth until I have some really positive news to share.

Anyway, I managed to finish this little uhlan command stand complete with my 1st white uniformed ADC. I have always wanted to do an 1813 period Prussian cavalry ADC in the white uniform (Kurassier pattern I think?) so I'm happy to see him done.

Not the most exciting of command bases but it'll do it's job I'm sure.

I'm pretty pleased with the subtle tones on the ADC coat from a light grey to white base and I think I may have a future avatar?

As a cavalry command they can control any cavalry unit, however here they are with the chaps they are destined to lead.

And 1 from a future post. Silesian landwehr cavalry very close to being finished

HELLO AND WELCOME

Like most figure painters and wargamers I have a large stash of unpainted lead hidden around my house and the way I see it I maybe have 15 to 20 good years of painting left in me. My goal is to get 1/2 of this mountain finished. My blogs will be a record of my efforts.